by Jay Gish
Jonesing for new late night talk show comedy, since the writers went on strike? Well, this will seem new, if you haven’t seen it…a low rent parody of late night comedy I produced, circa the late nineties. And in any case, it’s far more entertaining than that lame Carson Daly show, dammit.
by Jay Gish
A recent comedy video from CIC’s Jay Gish along with Jeff and Adam Zwirek, who have also graced the CIC stages. An up close look at the world of twins.
by Paul Baio
by Jay Gish
Dedicated to Dave Whalley, who is grounded.
Submitted by Cynthia Shur
A Puntastic Take on Lou Piniella’s Controversial Decision to Take Carlos Zambrano Out of the Cub’s First Post-season Game Against the Arizona Diamondbacks After 85 Pitches and Bring in Carlos Marmol
Design by Nathan Petts
The Entertainment Bus
by Tom McMahon
As a Resident Artist at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the creative world that we bring to audiences. I live for those moments were I could use my comedic timing to transfix an audience with overtly subliminal characters. Though it might look like easy work from the outside, the creation of a whimsical make-um-up theatrical experience is serious business. Sometimes the comedic process is a contentious one that must be waged on a case-by-case basis.
About two weeks ago, after pulling lights for a piece that I directed called Mist, I ran into an audience member who was curious of the underbelly of the comedic beast. She was an introverted sort but eventually we got to talking and we started discussing the show. To protect her identity lets just call her Big Hair. Big Hair’s opinions of the show quickly turned toward the staging of the last scene were she stated that the actors appeared to stager off stage. Miss Hair then summarized my piece as being pathetically simple that aimlessly begged for laughs. I was left standing there with my thoughts as she quickly disappearing into the woman’s bathroom.
At the start of the second act, still reeling from Hair’s dissertation, I decided to make a solo performance a solo audience show too. I did an impromptu movement piece based on the self-suggested suggestion of Watergate. The goal of the piece was to make one and only one person laugh. That night amidst the sea of shifting seats and awkward yawns, I heard the sweetest sounds, a short giggle snort followed by a chortle. The sounds were reverberating from the same girl who uttered the words “begged for laughs” to describe my first piece. I felt utterly vindicated even though I had just thrown 39 unsuspecting audience members under the entertainment bus.
But the night wasn’t over just yet, I still had one last challenge, to resurrect the remains of the zombie like audience which if I heard right correctly were starting to chant the word brains. So I backed up the entertainment bus off the audience roadkill and used a comforting piece called chocolate in bread (loosely translated means ‘Chocolate de pan’) to bring them to life. Then I truly touched them with an emotionally exhausting nine-minute soliloquy about the travails of a young duck named Mel. As the light dimmed for the last time and the audience began their thunderously applause, Miss Hair stood up, walked to the stage and laid a single red roses at my feet.
Theatrical moments like these are so fleeting and how we remembered those moments is like Chicken Soup for the Soul. The human condition requires that the audience and actors share an event from different perspectives, like my wife, who was in the house that night. She though my perspective was a tad warped since I was sipping from a bottle of Wild Turkey that someone had mistakenly left in the lighting booth. My wife then added that after the show (which she claimed ended in the overly aggressive use of a fog machine) I got up on stage and started to play the short form game Press Conference as I slowly did a strip teased. Here final ivory towered claims were that I passed out spread eagle on the third riser in my underwear repeatedly whispering the words, “I’m a little bit Country”. But that is the power and beauty of theater, we can’t rewind that moment to see what really happened, all we can do sit back and make memories.
By the way she also mentioned that I total creeped-out the Reader critic Mary Schen-Barinage when she was just trying to get to the bathroom.
Stay tuned for more insight into the inner workings of CIC.
In Response to the popular youtube video below
Our own Book of Liz Cast Member Casey had this as a response:
Remember what you were doing your last year in college? For anyone who majored in broadcasting, the evidence is right there, undeniable (and possibly pathetic), on tape.
Take a trip back to the wild nineties, courtesy of Jay Gish, and the University of Nebraska College of Journalism and Mass Communications. (Yep. The t-shirts read “UN-COJMC” for short.)
So on Sunday The Cast of Book of Liz and myself (Angie the Director) decided to celebrate CIC’s first ever sold out opening weekend with a bit of Karaoke goodness.
We got to the bar around 8pm and there was a band that was playing for two hours before the singing started. That was ok with me just meant I knew we would be going up first for singing and I could get out of there at a decent hour. I decided that the cast had to get up and dance to the band (cause we were nearly the only folks in the bar). Well one lady decided she liked the way I danced and continued to come behind me and grind me or go in front of me and present her ass to me to be grinded on. I of course made faces behind her to my cast making it all very funny in my mind.
At some point a gentleman at the end of the bar bought the cast a round on him. So looking at the group we had at the bar (only two guys, one was Nate with girlfriend on arm in toe. 
The very amazing and talented Cynthia Shur. The other guy was Josh, not only very talented but also our only gay male in the cast that we know of or will admit it j/k cast)
I grab Josh by the arm and ask him to go to the bar with me and thank the gentleman for the round as my boyfriend. He giggled cause the idea is of course fun. He put on his best boyfriend face and walked ever so straight up to the bar with me as my boyfriend and we both thanked the fella on behalf of the cast. We went back to our table.
At this point the band had taken a break and came over and thanked us for dancing cause it made them look better. They started back up and a fella who I think was with my grindy girlfriend comes over and takes the beer from my hand leads me to the dance floor and presents grindy to me again. I look at my cast now for some help but they are busy looking at the pictures on the camera and chatting. So she leans in and whispers in my ear “I want to fuck you so bad”.
I am speechless, I can’t tell you the last time anyone has uttered those words to me on a dance floor. She then presents her arm to me and says “I feel off my bike, I’m clean I don’t have herpes. Please I want to fuck you so bad.” I smiled and said sorry I’m married (not a lie but my husband was at home with our daughter). I pointed to Josh. Thats my husband. She said “Really, that guy” I said yeah sorry. I quickly ran over to Josh and jumped on his lap. I whispered in his ear “Your my husband” his reaction was Whaaaa? I was promoted? I tell the cast the story and we all get a laugh as I am holding on to Josh for dear life waiting for the dam Karaoke to start.
Again my lady of the night comes to get me for a dance. I reach for my “husband” and he waves and says 
“Have fun hunny, I’ll be right here” with a huge smile on his face. After that you couldn’t peel me off of Josh till this women was out of my sight. I told Josh “I am going to the bathroom and if she follows me you better come or I swear to God I will kill you” She didn’t follow me. But she did wait around for a LONG time to see if I would talk to her again. The night went on and I was up first to sing. I of course dedicated the song to my loving husband Josh and our 7 kids. I love you baby, I screamed in the mic.
The next Song up was Casey (who blew me away with her singing, you should see her in the Book of Liz. No singing but still awesome). And a very large Breasted women decided to join Casey on stage and rub up against her while she sang. And of course the cast all stood by and laughed and the weird energy in the room.
I later sang a song with my hubby Josh (love shack) and made him spank me during the song (well I think made me is strong, I think he may have just started spanking me) at that point my lady of the night finally left. But I did get another drink out of it from some guy who told me he loved my singing (Funny cause I have an awful voice)
I rounded out the evening with a rousing version of Desperado (a song I use to have to sing when I was in Tony and Tina’s wedding) with Dear Nate. After the song I found out his amazing talented girlfriend got hit on and slipped a card. Some guy who loves to “support Theater” with a wink.
What a night.
Site last updated December 19, 2011 @ 4:27 pm